Mortgage Applications down

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 1, 2006) - The Mortgage Bankers Association(MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the weekending January 27. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loanapplication volume was 626.8 - a decrease of 5.1 percent on a seasonallyadjusted basis from 660.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, theIndex increased 9.1 percent compared with the previous week but was down12.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 8.0 percent to 435.7from 473.7 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 1.5percent to 1747.2 from 1773.9 one week earlier. Other seasonally adjustedindex activity includes the Conventional Index, which decreased 5.9percent to 924.7 from 982.6 the previous week, and the Government Index,which increased 5.3 percent to 129.9 from 123.4 the previous week.The four week moving average for the seasonally-adjusted Market Index isup 3.3 percent to 625.2 from 605.0. The four week moving average is up 1.0percent to 452.7 from 448.3 for the Purchase Index while this average isup 6.1 percent to 1666.0 from 1570.0 for the Refinance Index.The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 43.0 percent oftotal applications from 42.8 percent the previous week. Theadjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 30.5 percentof total applications from 29.5 percent the previous week.